The Maturation to Become a Spiritual Teacher

Adyashanti, one of my favorite spiritual teachers, has an online radio show where he speaks on a chosen topic and then opens the line up for callers to call in and ask questions. It’s like an online Satsang.

Tonight’s topic was on student/teacher relationships and he addressed a lot of fantastic issues.

I wanted to call in tonight and talk to him, and so tonight’s chosen topic fit perfectly. I called and asked about when you know you’re ready to be a spiritual teacher.

His responses in our dialogue were wonderful.

QuesANSWERtion

Right off the bat, he said that simply needing to ask the question is itself a sign that suggests you’re not ready. The answer itself is basically embedded in the question, which is something he points out is often the case.

Life Decides

He also pointed out that the best teachers are often the ones who don’t want to be a teacher. (Not that they literally don’t want to, but that they aren’t striving to be. They’re simply being who they are.)

People who want to be a teacher very often have an inner motivation to play the role in order to satisfy some sort of inner need as opposed to playing that role for no reason… just because that’s how life expresses itself in the moment.

I remember seeing that arise in me before. The desire to teach was included the hidden mindset of, “If I can seem wise and knowledgeable, then I will seem worthy, then people will love me, and then I will be loved.”

Classic ego.

The best teachers are those who are just being themselves and not actually striving to teach. They’re simply living the Truth of their being. In Zen, they don’t care so much about what realizations and insights you’ve had, but whether or not you’re living and doing what you’ve realized. I really respect this.

You could say that when it’s time to become a teacher, life shows you when you’re ready.

As the saying goes, “When the teacher is ready, the student appears.”

The more popular complement is also valid, “When the student is ready, the teacher appears.”

Spiritual Maturity

Adya also discussed a maturation process that occurs between the time when your awakening[s] begin and when you’re ready to teach. There may be a lot of realizations and insights that occur with awakening, for sure, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that one is ready to teach. It is different for everyone, which should come as no surprise…

There’s a lot of instability with the awakening process. Ego falling apart, the “me” getting shredded, illusions being cast aside, dark nights of the soul, clarity, confusion, clarity, confusion, clarity, confusion, clarity, attachments being let go of, and so on.

Stability does come, but not until later, typically.

This maturation process that occurs after awakening awakens that, in Adya’s experience, takes anywhere from 5-15 years, but more typically 8-15 years. This range isn’t always the case, but it’s typically what he’s seen in people.

I recall Adya saying in some of his other stuff that his first non-abiding awakening occured at the age of 25. For me it occurred at the age of 24, which is the age I still am now. Not that it really makes a difference since there’s sooo many different styles of awakening, but it’s kinda cool to think that my timing is not too dissimilar than his.

How’d Adya Become a Teacher?

Adya said that he became a teacher simply because his teacher asked him to. Pretty simple.

I think the same applied to Gangaji.

For this particular radio session, Adya also had is wife Mukti on the line. She was one of his first students.

When she went up to Adya and said she was ready to begin teaching, his response was simply that he was waiting for her to tell him that she was ready and that he was simply just sitting back and waiting for the readiness to blossom in her. Whether or not it ever did was really of no importance.

Ego Hits

This whole discussion was really helpful for me to hear and quite honestly, it was both an ego hit as well as a relief.

On one hand, I felt a knot in my stomach come up in response to the inner fear that perhaps I’m not yet ready to be a super duper uber guru. (hah, say that 5 times fast…)

Yet at the same time, it’s a tremendous relief in that I don’t have to feel like I should be advancing more quickly than I am. This is a tremendous burden that can be let go of and turned over to God.

Instead, it’s more about honoring where I am, whereever that happens to be, and playing with whatever arises rather than trying to impose an official role onto what is here and now.

As usual, it seems it comes down to don’t worry about it. Just be.